


People & Plans

by Alerane



Series: An Early Exit [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Canon, Any ships in this overall series are slight and implied ones, Crime Scenes, Dark, Gen, I'm Sorry, Implied/Referenced Suicide, My First AO3 Post, New Dangan Ronpa V3 Spoilers, Poison, Suicide, Suicide Notes, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-27 03:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18295811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alerane/pseuds/Alerane
Summary: “Tsumugi, he’s not coming. He can’t.”There’s some finality to that. A touch of strain, something held back. That didn’t sound like a simple refusal. Even the others looked up at her questioningly.“Why not?” Himiko was the first to ask. Maki’s sharp glare fell to her shoes. The pause stretched between them, and she opened her right fist and smoothed out a folded paper in it. A note.“I guess we’ll do this first then...” She was very calm about it all. Collected. That would be reassuring to most people.Tsumugi knew better. She was not calm. She was in character. In the face of death an assassin is professional, calm. In the face of death…“No that’s wrong,” Tsumugi blurted out, not even considering the irony. Without waiting for confirmation, she started out the door into the hallway, striding quickly towards the dorms, lethargy gone in a burst. Maki didn’t move. Someone called out behind her, maybe Kiibo. No one made a move to stop her.





	People & Plans

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: I haven't written anything in years and I've never really written a fic so this might be a mess. I really wanted to get in Tsumugi's head for a what-if burning in my mind for awhile though, so here it is.

_When did plans and people start falling apart,_  
_in different directions so quickly_?

The three of them stood in the dining hall, waiting for Maki to return. So few of them, and without the louder participants, the silence was oppressive. No one tried to break it. Each of them was exhausted, bags under their eyes, and there was nothing left to say. Himiko’s hat was askew. Even Kiibo’s eyes seemed dimmer. 

Tsumugi’s downcast gaze flickered up to his face briefly, and then to Himiko’s. Her own hands fidgeted with each other. It had been a little while after the morning announcement when Maki had come to get them all, escorting them here one at a time. When they arrived at the dining hall, she noticed _it_ was gone. Clearly, Maki had found it, as planned, though hadn’t mentioned it yet. The others seemed to think they were here to end things, once and for all. Tsumugi supposed they were right, in a sense. Things were going to be set right again.

 Maki was taking a while to come back. Perhaps she was talking to him before they came over. They were closer to each other than the rest of them.

 _After all, they were the sidekicks._  
_They needed to make up, probably, after the sour note things left off on._  
_Even the hopeless might be heartwarming_?

However, when the door to the dining hall swung open, and they looked up only the long haired assassin strode in. Her shoulders were tense, her fists balled up, and jaw set. She glared around the measly congregation.

“I gathered you all here because I found something.”

 “...”

“This morning when I-”

“W-wait, hold on,” Tsumugi stammered, the others just listening in their heavy silence still, seeming to not even notice the absence. She looked around as though to punctuate her next question, trying to go back to disinterest in her voice that _should_ be there, but something anxious creeps into it. “Weren’t you getting Shuichi?”  
  
“He’s not coming.” There’s an edge to Maki’s voice, and her eyes narrowed on the stammering cosplayer. “But, before… we talk about that, I found a flashback light here in the dining hall. I wanted to gather everyone to see it, but that’s no longer possible. So we have some decisions to make.”  
  
“Not coming? But if it’s a flashback light he has to be here, it only works once-”  
  
“Tsumugi-”

 “I have to agree with Tsumugi, we can’t be making decisions without everyone that we can reach. It’s not logical.”  
  
“Did you tell him why? I can go try if-”  
  
“Tsumugi, he’s not coming. He _can’t_ .”  
  
There’s some finality to that. A touch of strain, something held back. That didn’t sound like a simple refusal. Even the others looked up at her questioningly.

“Why not?” Himiko was the first to ask. Maki’s sharp glare fell to her shoes. The pause stretched between them, and she opened her right fist and smoothed out a folded paper in it. A note.

“I guess we’ll do this first then...” She was very calm about it all. Collected. That would be reassuring to most people.

Tsumugi knew better. She was not calm. She was _in character_ . In the face of death an assassin is professional, calm. _In the face of death…_

 “No that’s wrong,” Tsumugi blurted out, not even considering the irony. Without waiting for confirmation, she started out the door into the hallway, striding quickly towards the dorms, lethargy gone in a burst. Maki didn’t move. Someone called out behind her, maybe Kiibo. No one made a move to stop her.

She stepped out of the school, only briefly wary for Exisals. Kokichi did still have that remote. But the courtyard was deserted, so cosplayer made her way to the dorms and towards Shuichi’s door, which was ajar. It didn’t look forced, perhaps he hadn’t locked it at all, and Maki had just tried the knob and walked in. So much for a closed room case...

 “Shuichi..?” She called out, as she stepped in. She didn’t knock, but calling out just seemed right. No one walks up expecting to find this, even when they’ve been told. It’s plain natural to disbelieve it, right?

 She stared into the detective’s dorm room, adjusting her glasses. Had she discovered any bodies herself yet? She supposed the magic show counts. After a moment of blank faced of scrutiny, she remembered she should react. Her hand went to her mouth for a gasp. It was an empty gesture, but so many of hers were now.

 He was there, and it almost felt like she was watching someone else find him. She could almost hear the music cue. Her stomach dropped. It was strange, almost like a conditioned response.

Shuichi was on the bed, curled up on his side. If you weren’t looking for it, he might be asleep. His rumpled clothes were the same uniform as when she last saw him, torn and marked from their trip through the tunnel, but intact. His hair was a disheveled bedhead mess. But his eyes were half-open, out of focus. If he hadn’t been facing the doorway it’d have been a true surprise. A small bottle was held in a rigid grip of his left hand. There was no sign of a struggle, no blood, no scratches. Serene. Everything about it was wrong for where they were. But it was too soon. _This shouldn’t have happened, that’s what Kaito had been for. Ah wait_ …

And something none of them had seen in awhile, his hat, was placed very tidily and deliberately on the bedside table, next to one more little bottle.

 _She should wait for the others._  
_She can’t disturb the crime scene._  
_She needs them to investigate._  
_She…_  
She wonders if they’ll even come ?  


Tsumugi glanced back out into the quiet dorms. Maki had pulled out a note.  
_Did Shuichi leave it…? What did it say? An apology? An explanation?_  
A proper dying message may be too much to hope for, even if he was a detective.  
It might have been prudent to stick around for it… but she'd come too far to just turn back.

Had anyone even seen him since they came back from the tunnel?  
In her moments out of her own room the night previous, Tsumugi had seen no one, but knew of Maki and Kokichi’s movements. All eyes had been on the hangar, hers included.  
And of course no one had seen plain old her.  
As for Kiibo and Himiko...  
The dorms were just a silent wasteland for the despairing.

The girl paused a moment, took a breath and braced herself as she crossed the threshold into the room. The detective was gone. _Someone_ needed to investigate. Even if the conclusions were obvious, surely there was something to this case. Something to give him the send off he deserved. There had to be, they were so close.

She crossed the room, stepping carefully over some discarded laundry, and his shoes at the side of the bed, haphazardly unlaced. Carefully, Tsumugi pulled back her long hair, tucking it behind her shoulder so it didn’t fall on the body and leaned over to see the bottle in Shuichi’s hand. The poison. _The murder weapon._

The bottle itself was mostly empty, a few stray drops clung to the lip of it. Some of the label showed through his pale fingers. It was the sort that had a built in anesthetic put you to sleep, and then minutes later stopped your heart. She remembered it from a game she played once. _In the end everyone had avoided the poison in that, but not here, huh_ . The cap wasn’t anywhere nearby. _Under the bed? It had to be from Shuichi’s lab, but… That couldn’t be right…_

 _Shuichi disliked his lab, and didn’t spend time there._  
She really doubted he left his room and went all the the way to the 4th floor for this.   
_Someone would have noticed._  
Wouldn’t they?

A moment came to mind from when they first went there. Kokichi running out of the lab with little bottles in his arms laughing. _Maybe that’s where they came from. Maybe rather early for a Chekhov gun but it could work_ , but if she needed convincing the others definitely wouldn't take it for granted if played that way.

 _Had Shuichi ever caught up with him?_  
_Had he returned them?_  
_Had someone else returned them to Shuichi?_  
She would have to check but there was likely no proof. And of course he could just have it. Reasons weren't always as tidy as a plot made them.

She moved over to the bedside table, and idly picked up his hat while looking around. Her hands found the detailing at the back, the three white stripes, fingers running over the seams thoughtfully as she searched. Comforting, familiar. Like an old friend. A friend who was gone.

The unopened bottle next to it she could read the label of, and unlike the one clenched in the cold hand it was an antidote. The antidote paired to the poison he took? Murder was looking less promising, but it could be a setup! All someone had to do was poison him in his sleep, forge a note and create a crime scene. A certain _someone_ could even lockpick his way in, if someone argued Shuichi wouldn’t recklessly leave his door unlocked. They’d just leave it open to make it less suspicious on the way out. If the antidote was in plain sight surely the trial would lead them to him having chosen not to have it and then-  
  
_The trial._

Shuichi was always the one leading the charge towards the trial. For the sake of their friends. For the fallen. But since Gonta… he’d looked to regret that stance. Himiko’s positive energy had washed up since Kokichi’s declaration. Sure, she could rely on Kiibo’s inner voice to bring up their duty but he was outnumbered. And she couldn’t sway the group. She always was the one to fall to plain peer pressure.  
  
_...would they even be able to force a trial?_ Kokichi had the Exisals.  
Unless he and Kaito came out to see what was happening and he relinquished his control, this was going to come to an impasse.

  
_Was it all over because of one weak detective?_  
His last words from the tunnel played over in her mind.

_“...Coward.” Maki had said._

_”..I know._  
_I just… don’t have the strength._  
_I can’t fight back…_  
_I can’t do it._  
…”

Tsumugi’s hands gripped tighter on the bill of the black cap.

 _Had it been too much?_ She thought he could handle it, even with the detour the plot was taking. She believed that he was the one who would finish it...

 Tsumugi’s drifting thoughts came back to the dorm room.  
Maki had been in here before her, but how closely had she looked at everything?  
_Had the note been obvious or hidden in a pocket?_  
Surely she had checked the body vitals but…

 _Had she read the bottles?_  
The one in Shuichi’s hand remained so maybe not.  
Tsumugi’s fingers twitched on the hat’s brim.

She’d hidden evidence before. No one ever thought to frisk anyone on the way to the trials. Accusations like that happened in the courtroom.  
She could change some things, remove some things. Make it more interesting.  
_Fix it._  
_She could fix it._

Wasn’t that already what she was trying to do?  
Her planned fix, her hope for everyone, was in the dining hall with the others, unused.  
She was up all night working on it, tying it all together.  
She should have been watching the pieces on the board not the ones to come.  
_Hard to see the board when you’re on it too..._

It was too late for that hope, but justice and despair could always have another hurrah.

Kiibo would ask what was right to do, and wouldn’t feel right without following through. He’d been getting closer with Shuichi, as far as she could tell. 

Maki who found him, who spoke to him last, who has been watching the hangar since they came back, can’t help but feel some responsibility. _Right?_ Even if the responsibility was completely misplaced.

Himiko who’s only closure to her other friends’ deaths came from this sad detective wouldn’t abandon the truth. She had wanted Tenko to matter, why couldn’t Shuichi?

Kaito would want to fight it, if he was still around by the end of the investigation.  
A sidekick he never made up with? Think of the guilt if he let it go.

.... and Kokichi with his plan to end the game, wouldn’t stand by and let something like this force him into silence. That might not help her, but it was something.

Surely… _Surely_ she could find a way to help them find a better ending. It was the least she could do.  
Because plainly it wouldn’t end like this.  
Right, _right_?

The hat shook in her hand.

 _She couldn’t let this weakness be the reason it was over._  
_She couldn’t let this vulnerability she made be her slipshod ending._  
_She couldn’t leave it like this._  
_So close._

Tsumugi reached for the antidote, and opened her jacket looking for a nice safe pocket to tuck it in.

“Wait Himiko-”  
  
“I said let go of me-!”

Tsumugi’s eyes shot up, peering over the rim of her glasses at the blurry figures bursting into the room, red-faced, stopping and staring at her, standing over the body and tucking the tiny bottle into her pocket and holding Shuichi’s hat in the other.  
  
Ding dong, bing bong.  
“A body has been discovered!”

 _Pulled between people and plans,_  
_When did I begin falling apart_?

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry Shuichi, I'm so sorry I used you as a framing device. I will write you some fluff later maybe <3
> 
> But yeah, I wanted to try to get into an actively rewriting Tsumugi while her game was falling apart, as was her act, her plans, etc.  
> I tried to relate how she thinks about people in a way that linked everything about them to their physical appearance, their outfits, things that she would personally connect to a 'character'. Hope it shone through.
> 
> Thank you for reading! This is the first non-comic I have written in a long time, and I wanted this to be prose not a comic, and I think it worked<3


End file.
